Shane Bitney Crone is profiled in the documentary “Bridegroom,” which shows how he was shut away from his partner’s life after Tom Bridegroom had a fatal accident.
Photo courtesy of Virgil Films & Entertainment

Shane Bitney Crone is profiled in the documentary “Bridegroom,” which argues that legal marriage protects the rights of gay partners. The photo opens Wednesday, June 25, at the Royal Oak Emagine theater.
Photo courtesy of Virgil Films & Entertainment

The gay marriage issue has a personal face in the new documentary “Bridegroom,” which opens in Royal Oak at the Emagine theater on June 25.

Shane Bitney Crone and Tom Bridegroom were together for nearly six years, traveled together, bought a home and started a social media/public relations business together. They expressed their love for each other every day. But Bridegroom’s parents were furious when he came out to them, and blamed Crone for “turning him gay.”

When Bridegroom fell off a four-story roof in May 2011, Crone was not allowed to visit him in the hospital because he wasn’t family. After Bridegroom died of his injuries at age 29, his family banned Crone from the funeral, threatening to attack him if he showed up, Crone says. They had no wills, so Crone had no legal rights in the matter.

On the one-year anniversary his partner’s death, Crone posted a heartbreaking YouTube video tribute, “It Could Happen to You,” which has attracted nearly 5 million viewers. “I just wanted to love him,” Crone says in his 10 1/2-minutelong video. “We need to take a stand for equality and promote tolerance. ... Protect yourself and the ones you love. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

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The documentary “Bridegroom,” directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (“Designing Women,” “Evening Shade”), tells Crone’s story. It was introduced at the Tribeca Film Festival by former President Bill Clinton, a longtime friend of the director.

“This is really, on one level, a wonderful, sad, heartbreaking yet exhilarating and life-affirming story,” Clinton said in his introduction. “And on another level, it’s a story about our nation’s struggle to make one more step in forming a more perfect union, for which marriage is both the symbol and substance.”

The movie was funded by a Kickstarter campaign supported by gay rights advocates including actors George Takei and Neil Patrick Harris. More than 6,500 people responded, pledging $384,376, according to Kickstarter.